Common Core is a well intentioned, but far overreach of the federal government into public education. If kids spent half the time learning as they do taking tests, the state of education in Michigan would be much different.

A sunset clause? The news from the nuclear talks with Iran was already troubling. Iran was being granted the “right to enrich.” It would be allowed to retain and spin thousands of centrifuges. It could continue construction of the Arak plutonium reactor.

Sometimes a set of circumstances comes along that illustrates absurdity more than any scene from Alice in Wonderland. Fortunately, we don’t need to wait very long for such an example, as government overreach is replete with these absurdities.

Sometimes a set of circumstances comes along that illustrates absurdity more than any scene from Alice in Wonderland. Fortunately, we don’t need to wait very long for such an example, as government overreach is replete with these absurdities.

When it comes to America’s foreign policy in the troubled Middle East, presidents George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama sure messed it up, and it’s getting to be a threat to western civilization through the creation of a radical Islamic State.

I would like to clarify a few things about how our UAW union functions, as I am sure some people must be confused due to the many letters printed in the Macomb Daily submitted by Brian Pannebecker complaining about the “corrupt union bosses.

As you know, the Obama administration has been negotiating a 12-nation trade deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The White House is urging Congress to use “fast track” authority that would allow the administration to present Congress with a completed trade pact, which lawmakers must vote up or down within 90 days, without amendments and with limited debate and no filibustering in the Senate.

President Barack Obama surprised many at the National Prayer Breakfast when he lectured us, “Lest we get on our high horse and think this (barbarity) is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.

I would like to clarify a few things about how our UAW union functions, as I am sure some people must be confused due to the many letters printed in the Macomb Daily submitted by Brian Pannebecker complaining about the “corrupt union bosses.

When it comes to America’s foreign policy in the troubled Middle East, presidents George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama sure messed it up, and it’s getting to be a threat to western civilization through the creation of a radical Islamic State.

Suppose that the government were to ask each of us to wear an unremovable bracelet that allowed our location to be determined in an emergency. The responsible agencies would promise never to use this authority in the absence of a court order.

A political development of actual importance is occurring in Iowa this month: Democrats and Republicans are proposing to increase the state’s gas tax. Not only is this a rational way to raise revenue to repair bridges and roads, it’s also a sensible response to the federal government’s abdication of the task.

One of the reasons I have loved being a teacher for so long is the marvelous complexity and dynamic change in my day to day activities. Nothing when done well is routine, and year to year the variety of students creates new challenges.

When Sam Smith accepted his fourth Grammy last Sunday, he acknowledged an unusual muse. “I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year,” Smith said of the inspiration for the hit song “Stay With Me.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, D, believes that the federal law requiring gun dealers to conduct background checks on gun purchasers “makes sense.” But Shumlin isn’t supporting a bill in the Vermont Senate that would require similar checks on sales at gun shows and on the Internet.

As we commemorate the 206th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, most people celebrate his birth — if at all - by grabbing a great bargain at the mall. This trivialization is deeply concerning for many reasons, not the least of which is ignoring his tremendous leadership.

Millennials don’t want to work in sales, reports the Wall Street Journal. They think it’s exploitative. They also hate the idea of variable compensation; they want a nice, steady job where the company takes the risk, not the worker.

In approximately seven months, on Sept. 15 2015, workers at the domestic auto companies here in Michigan will be able to do something that they have never done before: work for Ford Motor Co., Fiat Chrysler, or General Motors without paying a third-party as a condition of employment.

When Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, D, said late last year that he would introduce a package of gun safety legislation, Republican lawmakers immediately dismissed the initiative as a political stunt and the legislation as dead on arrival — well before it had arrived.

In 2002, John Judis and Ruy Teixeira published a book called “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” predicting that large and dependable minorities would grow out of a “strengthening alliance between minorities, working and single women, the college educated, and skilled professionals,” as Teixeira wrote on the 10-year anniversary of the book’s publication.

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that extended unemployment benefits probably raised the unemployment rate by about 50 basis points. This is of particular interest to me for two reasons:

The order for sorority sisters at the University of Virginia to stay home last weekend and avoid fraternity bid night parties was a boneheaded move by national sorority officers, to say the least. “This policy promotes a culture that reduces women to objects of sexual pleasure, only useful as subjects of the male gaze and desire,” wrote one U-Va.

Congress is going to move forward with Iran sanctions legislation sooner rather than later, and there’s nothing the Barack Obama administration can do to stop it. That’s the word from one of the two authors of the bill that passed the Senator Banking Committee Thursday.

Amid the ritual expressions of regret and the pledges of “never again” on Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a bitter irony was noted: Anti-Semitism has returned to Europe. With a vengeance.

WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans could find their health-insurance plans endangered if the Supreme Court rules this summer that President Barack Obama’s administration has broken the law in subsidizing them.

There are many unknowns to the upcoming special election asking voters to approve raising the state sales tax to 7 percent so we can fix our roads. Voters must also know that this ballot proposal has as much to do with negatively impacting their federal income tax deductions and placing another hardship on Michigan businesses that use vehicle depreciation schedules in planning future capital expenses.

It was an early December afternoon a few years ago during the height of the Great Recession. The Macomb Daily had just published a story about how the poor economy was having an impact on the Warren Goodfellows.